More Mass. voters steer clear of party affiliation

As voter registration forms flood into town halls across MetroWest, more voters than ever are choosing not to register with a political party.

By Laura Krantz/Daily News staff

MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, MA

By Laura Krantz/Daily News staff

Posted Oct. 14, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Oct 14, 2012 at 2:04 PM

By Laura Krantz/Daily News staff

Posted Oct. 14, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Oct 14, 2012 at 2:04 PM

» Social News

As voter registration forms flood into town halls across MetroWest, more voters than ever are choosing not to register with a political party.

Home to some of the nation's most liberal politicians, the Bay State is colored deep blue. But more than half of Massachusetts voters are unenrolled, a trend experts say has been growing across the nation for more than two decades.

In MetroWest, 53 percent of voters this year have not registered with a political party, up from 51 percent in the last presidential election.

"Having fewer people registered with a party means having fewer people anchored," said election data expert Michael McDonald.

A professor at George Mason University and a fellow at the Brookings Institute, McDonald runs a national project that collects and studies statistics about elections.

He said the large number of unenrolled voters produces a "bandwagon effect," meaning those people are more easily swayed by events along the campaign trail, like debates and gaffes.

"They’re going to blow in the wind a little bit more, if you will," McDonald said.

As of Friday in Framingham, 36,398 people, had registered to vote. Of those, slightly more than half are unenrolled.

Meanwhile 36 percent of Framingham voters are Democrats and 10 percent call themselves Republican. Those are the same percentages for Democrats and Republicans in Middlesex County.

Matthew Baum, a professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, said some voters enroll as independents because they are disenchanted with our political culture.

But unenrolled voters are often those who don’t care about elections.

"It’s people who don’t pay any attention to politics," Baum said.

That affects elections because politicians focus on likability instead of policy to win over those voters, he said.

Elsewhere in the state, Franklin County has the highest percentage of unenrolled voters, 59 percent. Suffolk County has the lowest, 39 percent, based on data from the secretary of state from enrollment before September's primary election.

Residents have until Wednesday to register to vote in their city or town halls.

Local clerks said the number of registered voters will fluctuate until Wednesday as more people register and they delete voters who have moved to other towns.

Voting data suggests some MetroWest towns are more politically active than others.

In Sudbury, for example, about 90 percent of voting-age residents have registered, said Town Clerk Rosemary Harvell.

"This is really an increase," Harvell said. She said 12,058 people registered in 2008 compared to 12,342 this year.

In Marlborough so far about 85 percent of the voting-age population has registered. The percentage in Framingham is around 65 percent.

But not everyone registered will vote.

In the 2008 presidential election, 73.5 percent of Bay State voters voted.

Page 2 of 2 -
Alex Keyssar, another Harvard government professor, said dissatisfaction with the political parties could drive people to register unenrolled, but either way, he said people this year are aware of the election and will likely vote.

However, since presidential candidates spend little time in staunchly Democratic Massachusetts, the state also misses out on much grass-roots campaigning that wakes up lethargic voters and gets them to the poles, Baum said.

"It’s hard for both sides to get their parties to turn out when they believe the top-ticket race is a foregone conclusion," he said.

Baum said the Brown-Warren senate campaign will likely be the biggest reason people vote on Nov. 6.

Clerks' offices will be open until 8 p.m. Wednesday for voter registration.

(Laura Krantz can be reached at 508-626-4429 or lkrantz@wickedlocal.com.)